A Hopeless Journey
by Runhard
Summary: After Order 66 has been given by Palpatine, five Jedi escape from the Sith and try and make it back to the Clones, to find a nasty surprise waiting for them. Follow their journey of hidden love, adventure, and deceit...
1. Chapter 1: The Retreat

Disclaimer- All the characters mentioned here are actual Star Wars characters, and are the sole property of George Lucas, and Lucas Films. The plot is merely something I made up the other day which I'd like to share with you. Here's a little info on some of the stuff in the story so far if you're interested- otherwise just skip down to the italic writing, which begins my story. Thanks for reading!

-Dan

Characters: 

Jedi:

(M) Ferus Olin

(F) Mara Jade

(M) Quinlan Vos

(M) Ulic Qel-Droma

(F) Vergere

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_Chapter 1: The escape_

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_The barren wasteland of Geonosis was covered with the fallen forms of both droids and men alike, and although the Clones managed to capture the high point of the battlefield (the Spire), the Sith managed to cut off their reinforcements from Tatooine. Now, with the Sith in much greater numbers than the Clones, the Republic is forced to retreat back from the Spire. Almost all the Clones have fallen, and only five Jedi are left. Unbeknownst to them, Palpatine has commanded Order 66, but no one on Geonosis is believed to have survived, and so the Jedi aren't being looked for…_

"Pull back!" Ferus Olin shouted, deactivating his lightsaber. All around him lay the fallen forms of Assault Droids- the only droids powerful enough to take on a Jedi. He glanced to the right, where Vergere was attempting to parry on oncoming stream of fire, from four Geonosian Battle Droids.

He swiftly reactivated his lightsaber, and threw it in the direction of them. It sliced through three of them, and Vergere managed to rebound the last droid's shot back into it.

The two of them turned, and began running back towards the docking bay, where only a few ships lay undestroyed. Their three other comrades: Quinlan Vos, Ulic Qel-Droma, and Mara Jade were already waiting for them.

Vergere was in the lead, and so she didn't even notice when a stray bullet caught Ferus in the leg, and he went down. He cursed under his breath, and looked back to see several Geonosian Droids coming towards him.

The others were already in the ships when Vergere arrived at the docking bay. The main shuttle transports they had arrived in were too big and slow, and so Quinlan, Ulic, and Mara Jade were preparing two ARC-170 Starfighters- (which were meant to be piloted by three, but under the circumstances, the rear gun could be left unmanned).

Ulic was still busy readying the first Starfighter, so Vergere jumped in the auto-pilot seat, and began helping him. They were too busy too notice that Ferus was missing…

"Umm… hey, is this thing on?" Quinlan's voice suddenly came over the radio.

"Roger," Ulic replied.

"Where's Ferus?" Quinlan asked.

Vergere turned and looked back through the entrance to the loading bay, and raised a hand over her mouth.

"Oh my God."

Ferus was starting to slow down. He was too slow for one shot, which then proceeded to hit him in the same leg, although this time slightly higher. He only showed it by wincing slightly.

More and more droids were advancing on him, and soon he'd be surrounded. In a final act of defiance, he stood up and faced the oncoming army of droids. He'd given up all hope at this point, and he took up a final, defensive pose, and defiantly faced the army of droids.

Suddenly a shadow fell across him, and looking up he saw a Starfighter coming toward him- with Quinlan Vos grinning in the pilot seat. In two short blasts of the Starfighter's duel cannons, the first and second line of droids was no more.

The Starfighter swept down again, but this time Ferus jumped up and landed on it's wing. Quinlan opened the cockpit, and Ferus fell in upside down.

"Hold on," Quinlan called out, laughing.

And with that, he closed the cockpit, and began his ascent into space. However, the Sith weren't going to allow the Jedi to get away that easily…


	2. Chapter 2: The Escape

Disclaimer- All the characters mentioned here are actual Star Wars characters, and are the sole property of George Lucas, and Lucas Films inc. The plot is merely something I made up the other day which I'd like to share with you. Thanks for reading!

-Dan

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_Chapter 1: The escape_

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"Report." Ulic's voice suddenly came over the radio.

Quinlan turned on his headset "We're heading toward Ryloth, where we'll rendezvous with the Republic fleet flying above it."

"Roger that- we'll lead. Over and out."

Ferus righted himself, and took up his position as the rear gunman. There, he was the only one to see it.

"Uhh- guys… I think we have a problem…"

Quinlan glanced over his shoulder "What?"

There, behind the two lone Starfighters, half of the CIS ships were taking off, determined not to let the Jedi escape.

"There must be at least 50 ships!!" Mara called out alarmed.

"Jedi stay calm in the face of danger," Ferus replied.

"What's our course, captain?" Quinlan asked.

"We outrun them."

But as he said this, three Droid Starfighters appeared in front of them, from another docking bay, blocking their path. The Starfighter containing Vergere and Ulic had already made it past, though, and was now on its way to space.

"Mara- arm the cannons, Quin- try to keep the ship as steady as you can…We're gunna have to blast our way out of here."

"Roger that, commander." Mara's voice echoed.

Quinlan began racing towards the other ships in a dangerous game of chicken. They began firing their cannons at them, but Quinlan used the force to predict where the bullets were going to go, and easily dodged them.

When he got as close as he could to them, he suddenly did an aerial maneuver which made the Starfighter flip over and turn around. Ferus then used the rear cannon to dispatch of the three ships.

He grinned for a second, but then remembered that they were now facing the 50 ships.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Quin?" He shouted.

"What you told me to do- outrun them."

"But we're facing them!"

"Not for long."

And with that, Quin charged into the mass of droid ships.

After clearing the thermosphere, and nearing the exosphere, Vergere leaned forward in her seat, and called out to Ulic.

"Where are the others?"

Ulic turned on the radar, and noticed the others were nowhere in site. Then he turned on his radio, and began sending transmissions to them.

"Quinlan- report. Where are you guys?"

The answer came back mainly in static, because they were so far away from each other.

"Droids… cut us off… attempting to escape… under heavy fire… help would be appreciated…" Then the radio cut off.

Ulic sighed and began rubbing his brow. Why did this always seem to happen? 

It was a miracle they hadn't been hit yet. The sky was red, there were so many red blasts flying. Mara and Ferus were using the force to make sure that no bullets would hit the ship, while Quinlan was doing his best to dodge the remaining ones.

A missile flew toward them, and Quin only barely managed to avoid it by doing an aerial cartwheel. The missile collided with an oncoming CIS Starfighter.

Finally they were through. Cheers echoed through the cabin. But they weren't in the clear yet…

They had passed the bulk of the smaller, slower ships, but behind them suddenly arose three Droid Tri-Fighters- small, extremely fast and agile ships.

Ferus attempted to shoot one, but it easily dodged the slow bullet. One of them then made its way underneath the Starfighter, and latched on. It ejected a large saw, and began attempting to saw its way through the wires connecting the engines to the ship.

Quinlan tried to shake it off by performing complex aerial maneuvers, but it remained firmly latched on.

They didn't even notice the second Tri-Fighter come down from above, and latch itself on also until a shadow fell over the cockpit, and sparks appeared on the glass ceiling.

"If it breaks through that glass, we're stranded here, because if we go out in space we'll be sucked out." Quin shouted over the racket.

Mara and Ferus both reached out with the force, and attempted to stop the blade, which they managed to do. However the first Tri-Fighter was still cutting through the cables, and so their victory was short lived.

"The final one is getting in range to shoot. This is it!" Quin shouted.

They all braced themselves for the shot that would leave them as nothing more than space dust… but it didn't come.

Suddenly they felt the Tri-Fighter underneath them unlatch itself from their underbelly.

"That's strange… they appear to have disappeared." Mara started muttering, examining the radar, when all of a sudden the Tri-Fighter on top of them burst into flame and fell off.

They all turned around simultaneously to see a large plume of smoke pluming from where the three had crashed, and then, suddenly a plane flew out of the smoke.

"YEEEHAW!!" Quin shouted as Ulic and Vergere soared above them. "Everyone ready? Then, let's go!"

And with that, the two ships turned up, and began flying up and away from Geonosis.


	3. Chapter 3: Surprise, Surprise

"Are you kidding me?" Mara Jade cried.

"Man, these guys just won't let up!" Quinlan replied!

The two Starfighters had cleared the Ionosphere, and were now heading toward the Republic fleet above Ryloth- from there they were in the clear… but first they had to get there.

Which would be difficult considering they once again had the entire Sith platoon from Geonosis after them...

"How long's it gunna take us to get to our fleet," Vergere asked over her headset.

"About 20 minutes. Give or take," Quinlan replied.

"Well they shouldn't be within firing range for another 15 minutes, so we should be Okay…" Ulic said.

Suddenly a red blast clipped Quin's wing.

"God damnit Ulic!"

"It looks like their Commerce Guild Support Ship has been launched as well." Ulic replied sheepishly.

Ferus cut in before Quin could come up with a retort "What does that mean for us?"

"Well… the worst case scenario is if it gets in distance, it can use it's tractor beams to draw us back."

Ferus sighed "And what's the best case scenario?"

"It'll use it's long range blaster cannons to blast us to oblivion."

"Quin, can you make this thing go any faster?" Ferus asked swivelling around in his chair to face forward.

"Yea, but if we use the booster thrusters, we might not make it all the way."

"That's a risk we'll have to take."

Quinlan pushed forward on the throttle, and Mara and Ferus were thrown back into their seats as the G-Force waves hit them. Ulic wasn't expecting it, and so him and Vergere were left behind. Sighing, he also pushed forward on the throttle and began racing the clock, his eyes never leaving the gas meter.

After about five minutes, they were forced to cut off the thrusters in fear of being left without gas. Luckily, Ryloth was right in front of them.

"I don't see our fleet," Mara stated, alarmed.

"It's on the other side of the planet," Quin replied calmly.

Looking over his shoulder, Ferus breathed a sigh of relief. It appeared as if they had lost them. They slowly made their way around the planet, taking their time. Little did they know that the other Sith ships had followed suit, and were coming ever closer.

Commander Bly was monitoring the radar when he noticed two small blips on the computer. He looked up to see two ARC-170 Starfighter's approaching the Republic Attack Cruiser. He put on his headset, and got them on the radio.

"Clones- report. Where are you coming from? What is your status?"

"This is Ferus Olin, Jedi Master of the Jedi Order. With me are Jedi knights: Mara Jade, Ulic Qel-Droma, Vergere, and Quinlan Vos. We are the lone survivors of the battle of Geonosis, and we have just come from there. Requesting permission to land."

Bly took off his headset for a moment, and let out an audible gasp. He had thought that those five Jedi had been killed on Geonosis. No matter, Order 66 had been given, and it must be carried out. He put his headset back on.

"Permission to land in hangar 24D."

"Roger that, over and out."

He put his headset down again, and opened up another line.

"Sir, the five Jedi involved in the battle of Geonosis have survived and are requesting permission to land."

From the other end of the line a voice replied "Use your head Commander. Activate the turbo blasters, and shoot them out of the air."

"Roger that."

And with that, he locked the turbo blasters onto the Jedi Ships, and prepared to fire, when he noticed another blip on the screen. Looking up, he saw a Sith Assault Ship appear behind the Starfighters.

_That's strange… must be a stray ship, lost from its fleet…_

Smirking, he locked the turbo blasters onto that as well, when suddenly the radar screen began overflowing with green dots. Looking up, he saw that following the Sith ship were at least another 50 Sith Assault ships! And if that wasn't enough, flying directly above them was a huge Commerce Guild Support Ship, with the fire power to take out the entire Republic fleet!

Commander Bly stared in amazement for a second, and then flipped the safety seal on a big red button, and pushed it. The five stray Jedi couldn't be further from his mind at this point.

Quinlan began steering the ship to the hangars, when all of a sudden identical ARC Starfighters began streaming out of the hangars. He was at a loss for a second when it suddenly came to him. He called back to Ferus who had the rear gun manned, and was staring out the window in disbelief.

"Umm… Ferus?" Ferus just continued staring out the window, "they didn't follow us… did they?" He took Ferus' silence as a yes.

"What's our next plan of action, captain," Mara Jade asked.

"We stay and fight, as is our duty."

"But we're nearly out of gas!" Quin protested.

"Switch our power to the electrical currents emanating from the Republic Attack Cruiser."

"Of course captain," Quin grumpily agreed, flicking a switch. Meanwhile, Mara relayed the order to Ulic and Vergere.

Quin did an aerial summersault and flipper the ship around, with Ulic following suit. Then, with the other fighters pouring out of the hangars behind them, the five lone Jedi led the way to the Sith in what would be their last ever battle with their Clone comrades which they had grown to trust and respect so much.


	4. Chapter 4: Aerial Acrobatics

Commander Bly sat down and put his head in his hands. It must've been those damn Jedi who were followed. Idiots. Well, they'd soon learn their place.

He stood up and walked to the window. Thank God he'd already prepared the turbo blasters; otherwise their Commerce Guild Support Ship might have made it into firing range of the Republic Attack Cruiser.

But as for now, the battle was looking good for the Clones. They greatly outnumbered the CIS ships, and their flying was probably superior also. Bly grinned- how could he have ever been worried.

He turned from the window and began making his way to report to General Sajan.

Ferus could see why the Jedi Council had elected Quinlan Vos as second General of the 501st Aerial Platoon. Without even batting an eye, he ducked under two red shots, and replied by taking down two CIS Assault Ships with the primary cannons.

Mara Jade was busy meditating, guiding the numerous missiles she was shooting off with the force- which left Ferus alone to man the rear guns and make sure no one snuck up on them.

He hated flying, which is one reason he never applied for aerial training like most Jedi do. However, to become a Jedi master, you must learn the controls of the ship, so he was put through some rigorous flight tests… which he passed… barely. No, flying definitely wasn't his strong point.

Lost in thought, a red blast appeared in front of him, and the back of the Starfighter was hit.

"Hey! You're meant to be covering our back!" Quin shouted from the front, causing Mara to break her concentration, which made the two missiles she was guiding fly harmlessly into the Commerce Guild Support Ship's hull (which was heavily shielded), instead of hitting the desired target of one of the main turbo blasters.

"Sorry," he called back, "I'm trying!"

Sighing, Quin flipped the ship around, and shot down the ship which was just previously on their tail. Ferus raised his eyebrows.

"And that's the way it's done!" Quin called out grinning.

Commander Bly strode down the hall swiftly. It was all he could do not to break into a run. The General had given him the privilege of personally seeing to it that the Jedi were destroyed. Smirking, he made his way to the hangars.

When he arrived in hangar 32C, he walked up to a key pad and entered several numbers. Upon finishing, he stood back and watched while a large metal wall rolled away to reveal his specially customized space ship.

It was an impressive black vehicle, sporting a jagged pair of dagger-like wings, giving it an ultra sleek profile that hints at the blinding speed the fighter possesses. Suspended between the two wings was a ball shaped cockpit, with room to hold one man. In fact, it greatly resembled the design of the 'TIE Interceptor' the Empire would begin using several decades later.

He named it the Leviathan.

Grinning, he climbed into the cockpit.

Ulic spun the ship around, and began flying back toward Quinlan's Starfighter. Both of them had two CIS Starfighters on their tails, and when it seemed as if Quin and Ulic's ships were going to collide, they both spun their ships around on their sides, and flew by. The two ships that were on Ulic's tail then collided into the two that were on Quin's.

Although Ulic was normally very serious and hardly ever expressed emotion, a grin stretched across his face.

"Haha- how's that for fun?" Quin's voice echoed his thoughts through the radio.

Ulic heard Vergere snicker behind him. He quickly wiped the grin off his face.

"I saw that Ulic," she teased him.

"There is no emotion; there is peace," he replied smirking.

"Oh, shut up," she replied rolling her eyes and smiling.

Ulic sighed, but caught her smile in the reflection of the windshield. His gaze was so transfixed on her that he didn't notice Commander Bly's Leviathan discreetly following him.

Quinlan sent a blast in the direction of a CIS Bomber, which, when the blast hit, caused a huge explosion (due to the large amount of explosives inside it) killing two other passing CIS Starfighters.

He was on a high now, and he was untouchable.

Two more ships approached him from behind, but he just did spun the ship around, and began speeding towards the Republic Attack Cruiser. The two ships followed him.

Quin stayed locked on the Republic Attack Cruiser, but right when he was about to crash into the side of it, he pulled up sharply. The two ships behind him didn't even have time to blink, let alone steer out of the way.

Quinlan cheered, and Ferus opened an eye and raised an eyebrow. He had quit attempting to shoot ships down and was now just meditating- trying to keep all blasts off of the ship.

"The Jedi's view must not be clouded by emotion. We must be on our guard now more than ever. I sense a disturbance in the force."

Mara Jade also snapped out of her meditation.

"I sensed that too, Master. Do you have any thoughts on what it could be?"

Ferus leaned back in his chair.

"I'm not sure… but we must stay on our guard. I sense what we fear the most may be making an appearance soon."

Quin sighed and sat back in his seat. He hated it how the Jedi weren't allowed to show any emotion. Or love… He glanced back towards Mara. She looked up and caught him staring at her. Quin quickly fixed his gaze on the windshield again.

Ulic and Vergere flew by right in front of him and Quin finally grinned. Ulic had told Quin of his love for Vergere. Likewise, Quin had told Ulic about his love for Mara. Because of this, the two shared a special brotherly bond.

Suddenly, another ship flew by. It was a long black ship of a model Quin had never seen before. And he knew his ships- you weren't made the head of the 501st Aerial Platoon for nothing. He also recognized when someone was being followed.

Quin swung the ship around, and fell into place behind the black ship.


	5. Chapter 5: The Deception

Ulic had finally realized he was being followed… it wasn't hard considering this black ship stuck out like a sore thumb amidst all the red and silver ones. It was too far away to see the driver, but he assumed it must be one of the Dark Jedi.

Ulic made sure to keep zigzagging so that the ship couldn't lock on to him. He noticed that Quin had pulled up behind the bigger ship, and was attempting to shoot him down. Ulic needed to buy him some time.

He began flying away from the fleet and closer to Ryloth. There was a dumping ground nearby, where all of Ryloth's waste was ejected. There, he would hopefully lose the black ship.

Quin just couldn't get a target on this guy. The ship was way too fast. So his only alternative was to shoot randomly- hoping it would hit. He had no idea who this guy could be- he didn't seem to have the precise, calculated style a Droid has, but it also didn't have the fluid motions of a Jedi. Then who could it be- considering the CIS only employed Dark Jedi and Droids.

He was still wondering about this, when suddenly one of his blasts hit square-on in the back of the black ship. Quin began to cheer, but stopped when he realized nothing had happened. He managed to get off another shot which hit… with no effect. His jaw fell open. How could that ship have survived that? He was suddenly unsure of what to do. How could he defeat a ship which doesn't take damage?

Ulic had finally made it to the space junk, and now he was darting in between discarded pieces of pods and stuff. Quin grinned- there was no way the ship could get Ulic now- there was too much space junk for him to ever be a target. Quin began calling for reinforcements on the local frequency.

"Hello- this is Quinlan Vos of the Jedi Order- requesting immediate backup. Two Jedi are in grave danger."

A reply came back over the radio "Report Jedi- what's your location."

Quin gave the coordinates, and waited for their reply. It didn't come. Instead, a sizzling sound came over the radio.

"Damn it!" he shouted, frustrated, tearing off his headset and throwing it against the windshield. The black ship must be blocking their connection. He'd just have to do this on his own.

Ulic let out a sigh of relief. He had just radioed the Clones, and had managed to send out and SOS right before the black ship behind him had begun blocking him. He was now in the safe-zone. There was so much debris around that the other ship never had a clear shot. Knowing this brought much relief to Ulic and made him let down his guard, so he wasn't prepared for what was about to happen.

Everything was blue. Quin had to squeeze his eyes shut or risk blindness. What could it be? But it stopped as suddenly as it had begun, and Quin opened his eyes to reveal the giant body of a pod flying right towards the windshield. He easily flew over it and saw what had caused the blue flash.

The black ship was still flying straight ahead, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Then, suddenly, everything was blue again. This time when it cleared, Quin was open eyed. He couldn't believe what he'd just seen.

Commander Bly began preparing another shot. This cannon was extremely powerful, and it had to recharge for a couple minutes after it had been used. He checked his consoles, to make sure that the blocking device was still working on their radios. Then he brought the Clones up his radio.

"Ok, stay away. Let them think that the Attack Cruiser is still safe."

"Yes, sir," the reply came back over the radio.

Bly turned off the radio again, and sat forward in his seat. The cannon was ready, and this time there wasn't any debris in front of him to block his shot. He grinned and took aim at the back of Ulic's space craft.

Suddenly, something hit him behind, and his ship jolted forward slightly. He turned around and saw the other Jedi's ship. It had fired on him, but luckily, Bly's ship had very advanced shields, and the damage it took was minimal. He would deal with him in a minute.

The console beeped as it locked onto Ulic's ship. Bly smirked and pressed the fire button.

A sharp pain ran through Ferus as he felt a tear in the force. His eyes flew open, and he shouted to Quin who had stopped steering the ship and wasn't moving at all.

"Quinlan- what is it?" Ferus and after Quin wouldn't answer, he asked again "Quin!"

"Oh… my God," was his reply.

"What?!"

"We have to get out of here right now!"

And Quin spun the ship around and began heading towards the Clones. He needed to get help right now. But he sensed the ship behind him. He turned around, and saw it behind him. The Republic Assault Ship appeared in front of him and he pushed forward on the throttle a bit because he sensed the ship coming closer.

Suddenly, it pulled up beside him. Quin slowly turned around and saw who the driver was…

Commander Bly smiled beneath his mask as the Jedi turned to face him. There was a long awful pause as the Jedi looked down slightly and began to piece everything together- why the pilot wasn't a Jedi or a Droid, why they hadn't been able to make contact with any Jedi, why the Clones hadn't tried to contact them after the battle on Geonosis… Slowly, the Jedi looked up again with a look of pure terror on his face. Then he spun the ship around, and began flying away as fast as the ship could travel towards Ryloth.

Satisfied, he brought up the Clones on his radio "Put the plan in motion."

"Yes, sir."

Bly grinned as he saw the Jedi's ship suddenly come to a halt.

Ulic's monitors were going crazy. He checked for damage: all three right wings had been completely blown off, and one of the left ones was missing too, one of the two engines had been blown off, and all the weapons systems were offline; of course, he wouldn't need those. On top of that, large chunks of the right side of the plane were missing.

He turned around to check on Vergere. She'd hit her head hard on the windscreen during the initial blast, when their ship had gone up in flame, and it had appeared as if the ship were blown up. Luckily, the blast had only cut through the wing, and it had ignited the missiles held underneath the wing. The right wing had been blown off, and the damage was evident on the right sides of the ship, but luckily the fuel supply had not been breached- otherwise, the entire ship would've blown.

He really needed Vergere to direct him and give him his coordinates as co-pilot, but luckily he knew Ryloth fairly well, having visited it many times on Jedi missions. He could see that he was in the Darklands, and he needed to get closer toward the habitable twilight band around the center of the planet. And, although he could see the Brightlands off in the distance, there was no way he could make it there- not that he'd want to: no one can survive more than a day in it's blazing deserts.

Ulic would have to crash-land in the Darklands and try to make his way North, where he might be able to catch a ship out of here. The only problem was: the Darklands were named so for a reason- he couldn't see a thing!

So, gritting his teeth, he brought the ship down in what appeared to be a lake.


End file.
